Three families in Qusra enter a ninth day confined to their homes
The mayor says about 13 people have been held in place since 9 August, that a military order due to expire on Sunday now runs to Tuesday evening, and that one of the town's houses is being used as a barracks.
The mayor of Qusra, Abdul Azim al-Wadi, said on Monday that three Palestinian families in the Jabal Ras al-Ain area of the town, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, had spent a ninth day unable to leave their homes.
About 13 people are inside those houses, according to the mayor, who said the confinement began on 9 August and has cut the families off from food, water and other basic supplies. Municipal staff, working with international bodies, delivered water, food and electricity to them on Sunday.
The order behind it has been extended rather than lifted. Al-Wadi said the military operation had been due to end on Sunday morning, and that the army has now set Tuesday evening as its end. Residents, he said, are sleeping neither at night nor during the day.
The army has also taken over one house in the town and turned it into a barracks, according to the mayor — a use that outlasts any single order, since a building converted for it is not readily given back.
Al-Wadi drew the conclusion himself: the army could have removed or detained the settlers around Ras al-Ain had it chosen to, and its failure to do so makes it a partner in what is happening.
Palestinian bodies have warned for months that attacks in Ras al-Ain follow a pattern aimed at establishing an outpost there and taking the land and homes around it. Nine days is short as a siege and long as a precedent: it is the interval in which three households learn what it costs to stay, and the ground beside them is quietly rearranged.